1. Technological Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of delivery of digital media data (e.g., text, video, and/or audio) over data delivery networks, such as an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) network, and/or the Internet; and specifically in one aspect to the generation of thumbnail information relating to the delivered data.
2. Description of Related Technology
Adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming is a technique to distribute program content over a large distributed network. Multiple bitrates of a particular piece of content are available to stream to a viewer and the selection of the bit rate is based on current network conditions. This means that when there is greater bandwidth availability, a larger bitrate version of the content may be selected. If available bandwidth narrows, a lower bitrate (i.e., smaller) version of the content may be selected to provide a seamless user experience.
During playback of content whether through traditional digital video recorder (DVR) or network based delivery, a user is additionally provided with an ability to perform various trick mode functions including e.g., pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. These trick mode functions are available to streaming media and existing Video-on-Demand (VOD) solutions as well. One or more thumbnails are displayed to the user upon selection of a fast forward, rewind, pause, random seek command, or other trick mode button. The display of the thumbnails requires the creation of a large number of stand-alone image files which are referenced to particular positions within the content. For example, if a thumbnail needs to be generated for every two seconds of content on a particular platform for a movie lasting two hours, 3600 thumbnails would need to be generated and managed. This requires a large amount of storage and content management for the variety of image files required under the existing solution.
Based on the foregoing, it is clear that while prior art solutions have generally recognized the benefits of adaptive bitrate streaming and trick mode functionality, technical limitations pose a storage and content management problem on the networks that store the content. What is needed is methods and apparatus for enabling thumbnail generation during trick mode operation which does not tax the system storage and which are easily managed.